Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday filed a supplementary charge sheet against the former Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner Santanu Sinha Biswas, in the case where he had been accused of involvement in a multi-crore land grabbing case.
Sources aware of the development said that in the 114-page supplementary charge sheet, Sinha Biswas, land mafia Biswajit Poddar alias Sona Pappu and real-estate promoter Jay Kamdar have been accused of involvement in illegal land grabbing within and around Kolkata involving a total scam amount of Rs 50 crore.
All three of them are in judicial custody now after being arrested one after another in relation to the case by the ED officials earlier this year.
The main charges against Biswas, sources aware of the development said, was misusing his authority as a former Deputy Commissioner and a close confidante of the former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and putting pressure on the original land or property owners to sell their land or properties at throw-way price for the purpose of real estate development.
As per the initial findings of the ED, Sinha Biswas had personally gained financial benefit of around Rs 3 crore in this illegal land grabbing case.
Sources said that in the supplementary charge sheet, the ED has also claimed that Sona Pappu, Jay Kamdar and Sinha Biswas used to conspire together to seize land.
There were also allegations of influencing the police administration against the accused trio and the central investigating agency had claimed that Kamdar used to influence the police through Sinha Biswas, considering Mamata Banerjee.
The ED officers have recovered WhatsApp chat conversations between Kamdar and Sinha Biswas, which gave the investigators substantial clues in the matter.
The former Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner was arrested on May 14 by the ED officials after a marathon interrogation in the matter.
Prior to that he was absconding for a long time. Two of his sons had also been interrogated by the ED officials for long hours at that point in time.
The ED is also investigating the former Kolkata cop about his suspected involvement in multi-crore illegal sand mining case in West Bengal.
(IANS)
